Have Had 2 Traditional CO2 Treatments for Post-surgery Scars. Should I Try Something Else? - Poland

Hello everyone,
I’ve been reading this...

19 Aug 2009

Hello everyone,

I’ve been reading this forum for months – it gives me both hope and fear subsequently and I thought I would share all my concerns with forum members and doctors. If I could get some advice and hints from you I would be very happy. OK, here is my case;

- I am 30 years old, 15 years ago I had terrible accident hence post-surgery scars on my face.

- The biggest scar is above my lip on the right - it is shown on the first 6 pictures here. This scar is placed where skin is folding when I smile and it tends to hide in it when I do so. It is pale now however what you can’t really see on the picture is that it is not even with the healthy skin, it is a bit raised.

- There is another small scar on my cheek, it is almost even with the skin surrounding however it is still visible, especially in the sun – what I mean is that then you can see exactly it’s texture.

- Finally there is a scar above my upper lip that looks like a line - it is after unsuccessful surgery performed by the top plastic surgeon from my home country – instead of giving my upper lip more shape he gave me another scar..This scar is relatively new, I had this surgery 3 years ago.

I have had two CO2 laser treatments so far. One was 10 years ago, another 5 years ago (so it’s been reasonable time break between them). Both dermabrasions proved much success, I could see the results - my scars were bigger before the treatments.

My main aim is to make these scars look smaller. After many years of sadness, crying and deep depression I have finally accepted the fact that I will never look as I looked before the accident. I still want to try and do everything what I can to make scars look smaller and less visible. Even if that mean taking a risk..

I’ve been consulting many doctors, the problem is that everyone is saying something different. I would like to get help with several issues that are my big concern. As I said I would be very grateful for any hints.

1) I would like to do another CO2 treatment. The laser that my treatments were performed with was made by Sharplan. I was very happy with the results. I thought that if it helped me already why should I not try it once more. I think that if the laser will take off first layers of my skin then new skin will grow and push down old layers deeper inside so it will make my scars look smaller. This is how it worked with two previous treatments.

But what is the limit of CO2 treatment done? It is very invasive procedure but if it helped me already I would like to get it done as many times as I possibly can (of course with reasonable time breaks).

2) I was suggested by one of the doctors to get Fraxel re: pair. treatment. This is fractional not ablasive laser so it will take off only around ¼ of the top skin layers. Is it good solution for my problem then? Because I would like to peel off as much as I can from the very first skin layers of my face. Please remember that my main concern are my deep post-surgery scars.

3) I was also suggested by another doctor that I should rather look into a treatment that will help my scars blend into a normal skin surrounding it. And then he suggested Fraxel re: store. He said it will stimulate deeper tissue of my skin to transform scars more into a direction that they will look like a normal skin. He also said that my biggest scar on the left hand side above lip will even out with the skin level. I would be grateful for any suggestions re: this possible solution.

4) My last question is re: two last pics I have posted here. As you can see I am stretching my scar with fingers there. It looks more even and less visible then normally therefore I thought that perhaps facelift done specifically for this purpose would be good idea?

Thank you everyone for reading this, your help will be very much appreciated!

Fraxel or traditional CO2 for post-surgery scars? If I could get some advice and hints from you I would be very happy.

Name not provided

I would recommend my doctor but he doesn't perform CO2 dermabrasion anymore.